Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February 2014 | Page 42

STRATEGIES

BY JONATHAN SMITH

Train Your Staff To Succeed
And your business will prosper

O

ne of the important considerations in
establishing and growing a property
or property management company
is ensuring that your staff complement is both
competent and productive.
Readers of this column will know that I
promote a highly systematic approach towards
property-management as the benefits of ensuring
that your company is systematic and correctly
structured during the performance of the
functions associated with property management
are extensive.

The benefits
The benefits of applying a systems approach to
property management are numerous and include:
• the ability to benchmark profitability and
service delivery;
• the ability to provide appropriate training to
personnel;
• the ability to provide structure, co ordination
and comprehensiveness to the services being
provided to property owners and investors;
• the ability to ensure an exemplary level
of professionalism throughout a property
management division or company.
Providing property management services within
the context of a systems approach means availing of
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February 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

the following tools:
• procedure- and process- manuals;
• flowcharts and checklists which assist in the
correct and logical performance of the
property management functions;
• a set of standard documents;
• a well-structured and powerful software
programme;
• a well-trained staff complement with a high
level of technical knowledge.
Achieving the goals and objectives of the property
management tasks requires your staff complement
to understand their roles and to perform their roles
with enthusiasm and dedication.
The human resources function of a (property
management) company needs to create an
environment which is conducive to productivity
(so as to benefit the company) and to career
planning (so as to equally benefit the staff
member).
Employees, however, also need to recognise
their responsibilities to contribute in an extremely
positive manner towards their employer’s goals
and objectives.
The staff within a property company should
expect the following tasks to be performed by their
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human resources department:
1. identifying the human resources needs (posts
of each portfolio team and support team
within the company;
2. drafting and compiling job descriptions and
performance standards for each post;
3. recruiting suitable personnel for each post;
4. integrating new personnel into their
respective posts;
5. training new and existing employees;
6. developing a career path for individuals
within the company;
7. compiling and performing performance
appraisals;
8. disciplining staff, where this is necessary.

The identification of posts
This process requires identifying the functions
that need to be performed (in accordance
with the functions required of a property
management) and quantifying the number of
posts that should be created so as to fulfil these
functions.

Job descriptions
A job description should contain the following
elements:
• a job title;
• a reporting structure;
• the definition of the job function;
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